Birds of the Massachusetts Coast

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"It’s Yours!" -- This pair of Least Terns are engaging in courtship feeding. It’s May at Allens Pond, and the bird on the left (presumably the male) has just passed the small fish on to his mate; then both immediately took flight. Least Terns spend most of the summer offering fish to others, even well after mating has taken place and chicks have hatched. But before mating the offer is much more often actually accepted than later–later in the summer it’s rare to see a second tern actually accepting an offered fish.
Copyright © 2009 John Van de Graaff

"It’s Yours!" -- This pair of Least Terns are engaging in courtship feeding. It’s May at Allens Pond, and the bird on the left (presumably the male) has just passed the small fish on to his mate; then both immediately took flight. Least Terns spend most of the summer offering fish to others, even well after mating has taken place and chicks have hatched. But before mating the offer is much more often actually accepted than later–later in the summer it’s rare to see a second tern actually accepting an offered fish.

Bird Photographs by John Van de Graaff